Eco Action Club - June-August 2017

Term 2  Weeks 7-9           Term 3   Weeks 1-3                 Eco Action work done

Vege garden

Garden growth almost halted but we still have harvested leafy greens: spinach, silver beet and lettuce cos, as well as the last of the carrots. Have maintained the weekly donation but the wet weather has made ground preparation non existent due to the damage it would do to the soil structure. Seeds of broccolis, cabbage, parsley and silver-beet planted for succession. Seedlings of broccolis, cabbage and more broad-beans planted for early spring harvest. The crop cover seems more of a hassle than use but has kept the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars out of the brassicas.

Nursery

A huge thank you CLS Canterbury Landscape Supplies and in particular director Phil Wylie for helping Shirley Boys High School Eco Action. They have kindly donated their very good quality potting mixes to allow Eco Action to grow healthy, large plants for revegetating the Red Zone.

Seeds harvested from Travis Wetland in the autumn are starting to germinate with Konini, hebe stricta, Koromiko, Manuka, native broom, lophomyrtus, wineberry, ribbonwood, kahikatea, bullrush and carex secta all germinated although still very small. The Tree Lucern seedlings, valued for its winter flowering, were potted up into 50 mm tubes. The swan plant seedlings germinated in late autumn but have simply sat in the cold temperatures and are still too small to pot on. Next year for this cash earner we will wait for seed sowing until late winter as the earliness of the crop does not seem to have been enhanced.

We planted 100 trees into the redzone in support for the Otakaro Forest Park organisation into Brooker Reserve. Free trees are very popular and the professional supplier, “Trees for Canterbury “ representative commented that they looked good and healthy. Irrigation will be essential for plantings that occur in January when the school reopens after the summer break.

It is anticipated that each new Yr9 will plant a tree of their own into the redzone as a part of their inauguration into the school to begin what the school hopes will be their continuing community service.

The 100 plum and fejoa cuttings taken in the autumn have commenced growth in their covered tray with some adventurous root growth present. It remains to be seen if their ability to absorb water by root growth is fast enough to out strip their requirement for it before they die. The 200 lavender cuttings which were intended for bee nectar and pollen food are yet to be potted on for a similar reason.

Eco Action attended the Matariki celebration planting day with a display in support of the Mahinga Kai Exemplar project. The weather was appalling but the SBHS tent did its job.(photo below).

Students and staff planted Eco Action grown carex secta grass into the stream running through the Mahinga Kai Exemplar project area. Carex secta is one of the grass species used by whitebait adults Inaka (Inanga) to attach their sticky eggs to on a king high tide. The water then doesn’t get as high for the next month so the eggs are out of water away from predation. The next king tide hatches the eggs and the juvenile whitebait are flushed out to sea. Eco Action is proud to be part of restoring the whitebait run in the Otakaro/ Avon river which in the mid 1800s ran the Avon white with sperm giving white bait their early name of milk fish. (photo below)

Beehive

Still alive with the bees wintering over very quietly. I only see them on the warmer days when some venture out. The anti Varoa mite strips are due to be removed soon and a new season of honey harvest will commence. Thanks very much to Chris Hutchinson for his continued support, guidance and expertise.